A SON

Yes, another son.  This will make 8 boys for us.  :)  Oh, how my mommy heart loves these boys.  We have found the little boy who we wish with all our hearts to join our family, we now have to wait and see if his file goes back to the shared list.  If it does, we will be right there to lock it in and move forward with bringing him home with our daughter Olivia Hope.  We found him quite by accident and the story behind how we knew (or think we know) he is our son, will have to wait until the end of January when we find out if he is our boy.  Well, finding him was not actually an accident in our minds.  We believe that God led us to him and as soon as I can, I will share that story.  For now, we pray, we wait, those are the only choices we have. 
Another tidbit for anyone wanting to know a bit more about us....we were DTC for a non special needs daughter in July of 2006.  At that time, we had one daughter from China who we adopted NSN in 2005.  God had other plans for our family.  If we had waited in the nsn line we still would not have our daughter home.  Instead, God had bigger plans for our lives.  While sleeping one night in 2006, God shut out every sound I have ever heard and pronounced that he was the all powerful.  At that moment, I knew I needed to listen.  Very shortly after that night, I saw the face of a baby boy in China who I knew was my son.  God blessed our family with that little boy and we traveled to bring him home during the Christmas Holidays in 2006.  We made it home on Dec 23rd and our son was baptized on Christmas Eve.  I could not imagine that I had been so blessed.  I never thought when I was younger that if I trusted in him that he would make all my dreams come true.  God wants to do that for all of us.  He blessed me at age 30 with a 4 year old son, then at age 34 with the adoption of newborn twin sons, then ten years later with our 1 year old daughter from China.  One year later to be bringing home a son from China was just beyond my wildest dreams.  Except, my dreams as a child included being the mother to ten children.  I always saw that as my life, so did God. 
Two months after bringing home our 5th child, God blessed us with a newborn who we adopted domestically.  Could it get any better than this?  Yes, you see while we were waiting to bring home our little boy from China, I saw the face of a very sad, pitiful looking, 6 year old boy from China who desperately needed a family.  God nudged, we took a chance and sent in our LOI and China said YES, we could adopt him.  All of this prior to traveling to bring home Gabriel.  Then while in China adopting Gabriel during the Christmas Holidays, we met a little boy with dwarfism at our son's orphanage.  This little boy came to me and pulled at my pants leg and giggled.  It was just the sweetest sound I had ever heard.  When I turned to see who it was, my heart skipped several beats.  I was looking at a child who I knew at that very second was my son.  Oh, boy, how to tell my husband.  We were in China adopting, already had 4 children and preapproval for our son Joshua in China.  How could this be?  Well, I have given up trying to figure it all out, I just knew he was ours and somehow, we would be bringing him home one day.  We promised him that.  So back to Feb, of 2007 and our beautiful newborn son we adopted, (who by the way I found out about on a China Yahoo Group)  NO, he is not Chinese, he is biracial.  God had a hand in that as well.  (Thanks, Karen)Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork followed and we were finally able to bring home our son Joshua from China in March of 2008.  He was our first out of birth order adoption.  Then after years of more paperwork and in God's time, we brought home another child out of birth order, that little boy with dwarfism in May of 2010.  Ping is 9 years old.  Trusting God's timing is not always easy, but it is the best way.  Thinking he would be our last, it came as a surprise that God had more children for our family.  So now at age 50, we will be bringing home another daughter and son from China.  I could not be happier.  Oh, did I mention that I married a reluctant husband.  God had other plans for him.  My husband, he is just the best.  :) 

Not just one more!!!

Joe and I have decided to bring home two children this time around.   Our agency has given us their blessing and we should have our Immigration Approval in the next week or so.  We are actively looking and praying and hope to have a beautiful face to put on our site very soon of another precious angel who will have a family.  Our family! :) 

OLIVIA HOPE

Here are some pics of our family.

OLIVIA HOPE (CURRENT PICTURE)

This is an updated picture of our sweetheart!

Olivia Hope

This is our precious daughter, Olivia Hope.  She needed for us to take a chance...she lingered on the special needs list for far too long.  I do understand how the description of her needs could scare many families away. That is okay, it gave us time to find her.  Look at that face, how could we ever say no. I look at her and my mommy heart says, this is my daughter, she needs our family and our family needs her.  Whatever issues she comes home with, well, honestly, we will deal with them as her family.  We know a little bit about dealing with the unknowns.  Olivia is not our first child she will be our 9th.  She will be our 5th child adopted from China and our 4th special needs adoption from China.  We have adopted every year for the past 6 years.  It is contagious, :)Olivia is now 3 years old and if I have any say in it, she will be home before she turns 4.  I am a mommy after all.  We can do anything we set our minds too.